California’s Three Strike Law
Elsie Carrasquillo
Crime and Society
Instructor Scott Axton
April 2013
ABSTRACT
Some states have yet to join those states that have put in effect the Three Strike Law. Even though many states have implemented the Three Strike Law it still has many setbacks. California has the strictest laws on the Three Strike Law. While experts thought this would be a good idea it causes issues like overcrowding in prisons and a much bigger budget plan.
California’s Three Strike Law has been around for about 19 years now. Its main goals were reducing crime and deterring offenders from repeating or committing crime. The Three Strike Law in California has recently come about to be reformed. The reason why the Three Strike Law came about to reformed was because, regardless of the crimes committed, whether serious or petty crimes, as long as it was there third strike. Than they are facing life in prison whether their crimes were minor or major offenses.
A big issue that is related to California’s Three Strike Law, is that despite of the offenses committed, as long as they two strikes on the third strike they are facing life in prison. For instance, if a young male at the age of 15 decided to commit the crime of shoplifting, maybe due to the lack of income. That would be classified as strike one. Let’s say that at age 20, he is convicted of breaking and entering. That would be considered strike two. On his third offense, at the age of 29, he is convicted of multiple identity thefts. He would be sent to prison for life without the possibility of parole. Even though the crimes were spread apart and not close in timeframe, because of California’s Three Strike Law, the crimes still add up to three strikes.
A social implication of the Three Strike law is that, let’s say that young male who has two strikes, gets a job but his employer is unaware of his situation. When he goes to jail the third time, than the employer is left with having to replace...